I came up with an idea of my own by myself months before, and continue to daydream about it almost daily (the original post comes from https://forum.freegamedev.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12537):
MeseVerse
Note that this likely won't be started on full-time until I graduate in May 2020 (although I may work on small bits of this in the meantime), where I will no longer have to worry about school assignments taking up my time, unless other interested people join in. At the time of writing, I currently have almost nothing for this game besides the things that I have stated above and what's in the project repository, but I hope this won't be out of vain (it will take a long time if I'm the only one working on a quite ambitious game). Additionally, I will be making up the story involving mese (the only lore I have about this item is at https://wiki.minetest.net/Mesecons, where mese is implied to be a conductor of electricity), since Minetest does not include any in-game lore about this item.
The actual project repository currently does not contain much more than an empty Godot project. However, I have a very rough draft of what the game's logo would look like (if the logo doesn't display, it also comes in as an attachment):
View attachment 196420
MeseVerse
- Project URL (currently private as of this writing, but can be made public with enough public interest): https://gitlab.com/Worldblender/meseverse
- Title: MeseVerse (the name is a tribute to Minetest; check https://wiki.minetest.net/Mese for more info about this item) (portmanteau of *mese* and *universe*)
- Genre: 3D role-playing game (RPG), aiming to be a hybrid with Western and Japanese elements.
- Engine: Most likely Godot Engine, unless there is another superior engine released later on; the game will support add-ons of various kinds (including but not limited to characters, maps, and expansion packs), some of which may have to be paid for (this is explained in more detail at point *Funding support*.
- Platforms: PC, and other platforms supported by Godot. Getting this game onto the major consoles is likely to pose significant challenges for any FOSS games, unless I produce special licensed versions or charge for them
- License: GNU GPL v3+ for the main game, GNU LGPL v3+ for the engine
- # of players supported: Normally single-player, but two-player co-op may come later on; the main game is fully playable offline.
- Funding support: The base game will be made free to download, but paid DLC will exist for content that significantly expands gameplay. For example, exploring Earth is free, but exploring other planets requires paid DLC (downloadable content or add-ons). Another example is that the present-day Earth is free, but time travel requires paid DLC. I would like to have something of this game be FOSS without going 100% proprietary software, unlike what all major game studios do, but have a source of income to continue development of MeseVerse.
- Theme: Mild science-fiction involving playable characters under control of mese-injected computers (note that this means real-life computers with mese-infused CPUs and sometimes GPUs, not foreign futuristic computers, at least for the base game). Any other relevant technological advances I read about, including those not yet seen commercially, may be placed here.
- Other themes involved: High-tech brain-computer interfaces, building and assembling computers, 3D printing, e-waste and the reuse of many kinds of computers and waste material, travelling around the world and in outer space.
- Locations: Fictional version of the real-life universe, including Earth, possibly other planets and galaxies; fictional locations are possible; Earth will most likely be composed of OpenStreetMap data.
- Subjects: The United Nations will assume the management of mese and the playable characters; the first character is an adult human that can be freely customized, other kinds can include animals and live 3D models tentatively called Mesenions (portmanteau of *mese* and *minion*) made out of mese-powered 3D-printed material; friendly alien subjects in the form of 3D geometric shapes called Geo-Men (portmanteau of *geometric* and *men*) are what actually control the mese-injected computers and thus the characters with those computers (they are physically visible during the beginning of the game's story, in dialogs, and after completing the main game).
- Subjects of Mesenions: Almost anyone is eligible, as long as a 3D model exists for them somewhere; characters based on FOSS mascots (likely at least the ones found in SuperTuxKart, and will also reuse models from there) and original characters from FOSS games will ship with this game; characters from pop-culture video games and other media very likely to come with restrictive licensing, so they will have to be downloaded from a separate repository, and won't ship with the base game.
- Party functionality: More than one character can be played with at one time, limited by the amount of CPU cores the leading character's computer has (N - 1 is how many more characters can be in the player's party); up to 1000 characters can be saved (999 more can be acquired, as the 1st one out of the 1000 is always taken by the first character created).
- Collectibles: Mese fragments, crystals, blocks, and possibly Meseroids (portmanteau of *mese* and *meteoroid*), with each next item requiring 9 of the item before it like in Minetest; these collectibles can be converted to an intermediate form called MeseCoins, which can then be converted to in-game real-world currencies (real money is only involved in the purchase of certain paid DLC).
- Item storage: Almost completely digital; physical items are stored on the storage of each characters' mese-injected computers, even other characters; max # of items depends on storage installed in particular computer; all characters can connect to centralized servers to share their items
- Main objective: Find 32 colored mese blocks (each one containing different abilities) scattered across Earth, with colors from https://github.com/OpenRCT2/OpenRCT2/wiki/Widget-colours; some have a boss of some sort that has to be defeated; the game can continue to be played after this objective is complete.
- Customization support: All playable characters will support some level of customization, in terms of appearance and equipment; a NSFW mode (either in the base game or as free DLC, depending on what is most acceptable) can be enabled through hand-editing a setting in the game configuration files (similar to what has to be done to enable Artist Debug Mode in SuperTuxKart), where it will at least allow full undressing of characters, or making them nude.
- Save game handling: Save games will most likely be file-based, and can be either located anywhere on a file system, or be centralized in one directory; format is likely to be SQLite-based, unless Godot does not support such files at all, or I find another format that is better suited for RPG games.
Note that this likely won't be started on full-time until I graduate in May 2020 (although I may work on small bits of this in the meantime), where I will no longer have to worry about school assignments taking up my time, unless other interested people join in. At the time of writing, I currently have almost nothing for this game besides the things that I have stated above and what's in the project repository, but I hope this won't be out of vain (it will take a long time if I'm the only one working on a quite ambitious game). Additionally, I will be making up the story involving mese (the only lore I have about this item is at https://wiki.minetest.net/Mesecons, where mese is implied to be a conductor of electricity), since Minetest does not include any in-game lore about this item.
The actual project repository currently does not contain much more than an empty Godot project. However, I have a very rough draft of what the game's logo would look like (if the logo doesn't display, it also comes in as an attachment):
View attachment 196420
